The One and Only Ivan

by Katherine Applegate

Week 3: Books for Boys

This book is inspired by a true story of a gorilla kept in captivity named Ivan.  The book is told from the point of view of Ivan himself.  Ivan has spent 27 years behind glass walls at a shopping center and has been the big attraction to attract visitors.  This is the story of him and his friends, Stella an elephant, and Bob a stray dog.  His world changes though when they get a new baby elephant called Ruby.  Ruby makes him think about his home and how they are treated by their owner, Mack.  Ivan likes to paint and learns new ways to express himself throughout the book.  In the end his art leads him to many changes in his life. 

Katherine Applegate is a storyteller like no other and won the Newberry Medal for "The One and Only Ivan."  When we read this book in class the boys loved it and couldn't wait till the sequel "The One and Only Bob" to come out.  We had to read it too.  Boys like books that are in series and that if they love one they will love the others by the same author. 

One of the boys in my class loved "The One and Only Ivan" so much that he found another book by Katherine Applegate , "Crenshaw", and read it also.  

In the classroom I used "The One and Only Ivan" to do a "Compare and Contrast" lesson.  We watched the movie after we were done reading it and then did a Venn diagram on how the book and the movie were a like and how they were different.